Sharing my happiness

[jubal81]

Big congrats, bud!

[micromegas]

Congratulations on finishing.  My last year in getting my Bachelor's was the worst, mostly because I just wanted to get it over with and get on with life (I'm a mechanical engineeer by trade, but I really haven't done a lot of pure engineering in the last 15 years, even though I've always worked for engineering firms).

A little bit of unsolicited advice on the Master's thing - don't do it right now.  Go out and get some work experience and find out if you really even like it as a career.  Reason I say this is that if you take another couple of years before you enter the workforce in your chosen career, you will be older than the kids graduating with their bachelors, and you will have the same amount of work experience (none).  And only do the Master's if you are truly passionate about it.  I've got a number of friends and colleagues who've gone for their Masters, and it didn't do a whole lot for them professionally (in fact, in most cases they lost money on the deal).

Thanks for the advice man. I've considered that many times (and still I am), the problem is that, by getting experienced, many times you narrow your profile to that field you've been working on, and I don't know many DSP companies that would hire a newbie like me... (for example: I have a year of experience working as a web developer for a little company here, I've learnt many things related to that field, but I know for sure that I don't want to do this for a living unless I needed to).

Anyway, I still have to read my final project (and to finish it, as I had to stop in August) and I have almost 9 months on which the only things I'll had to do is: build pedals, play guitar, earn money to be able to live outside this country and decide what to do with my life (that includes applications and research of the market).

[GermanCdn]

If you decide to go the more conventional EE route (i.e. MV and HV applications, E-house and switchgear design, etc), let me know and I can put you in touch with my offices in Germany and Italy (or China or Australia or India or Brazil or Chile or the US) in case they're looking for new recruits.  It's a little slow right now, but should pick up in a couple of years, which is about the right timing for you.

[micromegas]

That is most excellent news! Congratulations on your achievement. It is truly impressive, especially to humanities flunkies like me. 

There's not such a think like flunkies in the Engineering world, you always can learn some from someone. I had a teacher who had previously worked in a really big company and told us that he learned more from the mechanics and even the janitor than from the rest of engineers.

I have learned a lot about matched impedances and how electronics work in my estudies, but I feel like an idiot many times trying to understand how a pedal works (and many people here, including yourself, are masters in that area).

[micromegas]

If you decide to go the more conventional EE route (i.e. MV and HV applications, E-house and switchgear design, etc), let me know and I can put you in touch with my offices in Germany and Italy (or China or Australia or India or Brazil or Chile or the US) in case they're looking for new recruits.  It's a little slow right now, but should pick up in a couple of years, which is about the right timing for you.

Thanks man!! That's very kind of you, I'll take this into account if I finally decide to go that way.

[GermanCdn]

There's not such a think like flunkies in the Engineering world, you always can learn some from someone. I had a teacher who had previously worked in a really big company and told us that he learned more from the mechanics and even the janitor than from the rest of engineers.

Ah, the exuberance of youth.  There are such things as flunkies in Engineering.  I'd go as far as to say there are far more flunkies than good ones, but the reality is "engineering" in itself is a production machine, and as such, the need for bodies to grind out work tends to exceed the requirements for "qualified" people.  I have worked for two of the largest engineering firms in the world, and I'd say 20% of the staff were excellent, 20% were good, and 60% were completely interchangeable/replaceable/expendable.

The moral of this story - get good at what you do early, and you can surf past the flunkies quickly both in terms of professional development and salary.  A good friend of mine in university is definitely one of the 60%; in the 15 years since he graduated his overall compensation package has increased by 80% (marginally above cost of living increases).  In that same time frame, my compensation package has increased by 535%.

[micromegas]

What I really meant to say is that, although engineers are supposed to have a qualification greater in some aspects to what others have in the related field, you can always learn from those very valuable things that could help you improve your knowledge & understanding.

So, from my point of view, there should be no minions: you're good at your work, I'm good at mine the "machine" works and we both learn from each other so it can work better (I understand this does not happen most of the time, though).

[RobA]

Excellent! A big congratulations, but does this mean you get to spend more or less time on effects?

Much more time. I've been studying and working as a web developer this year so it has been a hell of a nightmare.

I also have the idea to get into a Master Degree about something that could merge my 2 passions: electronics & music.
Been searching around and the most accurate thing are some Masters specialized in Audio DSP.
The cool thing about my career here in Spain is that you can end up with 2 profiles, one centered on Signal Processing and Computation (by default) and the other based on what path you choose (RF in my case).

So I love things from both worlds, digital and analog.

DSP and RF are both great areas to have a background in.

There are several really good labs/groups around the EU that have programs that bridge the areas of music and signal processing. If I were (much) younger, that's where I'd try to head right now. There's some really interesting work being done now in lots of areas.

Your biggest risk right now is getting typecast as a web developer .

[rullywowr]

Congratulations!  That is really exciting.  Now we need to see some awesome circuits from you

[micromegas]

Congratulations!  That is really exciting.  Now we need to see some awesome circuits from you

Thanks! many ideas, translating them to actual circuits is other thing

[micromegas]

DSP and RF are both great areas to have a background in.

There are several really good labs/groups around the EU that have programs that bridge the areas of music and signal processing. If I were (much) younger, that's where I'd try to head right now. There's some really interesting work being done now in lots of areas.

I've been researching a bit in the last few years, the Audio Engineering Society is a good starting point in this matter.
There are some groups in Europe (University of Aalto, University of Hamburg, etc) but I don't know how accesible they are... that's what I'll try to figure out in the next few months.

[zilla]

First, congrats on graduating!

I'm going to echo what GermanCDN has said.

go out and get experience now. See what you like and don't like. if you do end up liking it, your employer might cover your expenses and send you off to get a Masters (or maybe an MBA or PMP if that's more your thing).

I went the higher education route straight after getting my B.Sc. and after finishing school i saw my friends who went into the workforce after undergrad who had many more years of work experience under their belt (as well as owning a house, cars, a family, etc) while i was just starting out.

And about flunkies: i've lost count of how many engineers i've worked with who did not have a firm grasp of the fundamentals... to the point where it was downright scary to know that they were designing major civil structures or O&G  pipeline related things.

[GermanCdn]

And about flunkies: i've lost count of how many engineers i've worked with who did not have a firm grasp of the fundamentals... to the point where it was downright scary to know that they were designing major civil structures or O&G  pipeline related things.

I'm pretty sure this is still called the "Alberta Advantage" (inside joke only me, zilla, and maybe Jacob will get)?  My first stint in consulting (5 years), the talent pool was bad.  My second stint (left it after 9 months), it was an order of magnitude worse.  Common sense alone would save billions.

[zilla]

It's not just in alberta... when i was teaching undergrad physics labs at university in ontario it was insane how many of the engineering students there were clueless even after a few years of school...  no ability for deductive reasoning or critical thinking.. they were almost as bad as those kids who were taking biology or biochem to get into med school (shots fired! lol)

[GermanCdn]

I know, it's just worse here.  I've currently got engineering firm clients in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, St. John's and Calgary.  Calgary ones are the worst by a long shot, to the point where I stood up in a meeting (remember, not a structural guy) and openly questioned why the walls in the building I was running my equipment in to were 1400mm thick (building was the size of two football fields).  Response was that it was to take horizontal loads of my equipment.  Told them I could take all of the horizontal loads internal to my structure (standard practice) and add one sliding joint.  Net effect was the walls came down to 600mm, millions in concrete and steel were saved.  Too bad that 8 CSA engineers had already billed for two years of design time on the building .